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Tuesday, December 23, 2014

9 Proven Website Branding Techniques To Build Trust

Establishing
a strong online presence for your business is a process that will definitely
require meticulous planning and execution. You have to go every possible extra
mile if you want to win the trust of today’s customers because they are very
discerning. The feeling users will get on your website should give them
confidence in your brand’s ability to offer a satisfying solution. It is
therefore in your best interest to create the best website branding and keep
perfecting it over time. You don’t want any of your potential customers to
doubt your ability to deliver, so make sure your website has every little
element that can boost visitors’ confidence or provide any piece of evidence
that can build trust.

Now that
you have a good idea of what you will need to achieve, let’s look at the 9
techniques you can make use of to improve your website.

Build a strong corporate identity

Customers
will take your brand seriously if the website they find online has a
professional look. It is therefore absolutely important to build the right
corporate identity including a professional logo and a color scheme applied
consistently throughout the website. This should also be extended to other opportunities
of engaging with your audience, so even when sending out emails remember to
include the logo and other elements of your corporate identity. Such efforts
will definitely go a long way in creating the desired image for your brand. Whenever
web users search for your business name online, they should easily find and
recognize your logo. Including your professional photo in your website is also
a nice idea as it gives it a face that potential customers can easily recognize
and associate with your brand.

Provide useful content

You must
genuinely engage your online audience with useful content that helps them
understand the value you promise to provide. If you thought “salesy” content is
all you need to generate sales, forget it. Today’s discerning customers have
probably already done their research before visiting your website. They already
know what they are looking for, so you ought to have done your homework right
to provide facts and convince them how valuable your offering is. You will need
to provide tips on how their problems can be solved. Use text, images and
videos where necessary in order to create the most engaging content for your
website. That might make them keep coming back until they trust and buy your
product. Such high quality content should also be published on your blog. Make
your audience believe that you are truly a thought leader in your given field.

Create a great ‘About Us” page

Any
professional business website should have an “About Us” page answering the most
critical questions about its identity, core values, mission, vision and similar
things. The most serious visitors are likely to be interested in that section
of your website as it lets them quickly know about your business and what it
stands. Be creative and provide information that you know will matter to your
potential customers as they consider buying from you. A good idea is to include
professional photos of your team if any and providing the areas of their
expertise.

Display project portfolio

Think about
the impact of providing real evidence to your potential customers about what
you can do? Professional videos, photos and descriptions that can highlight
your work in past projects will significantly boost your conversion rates. The
professional work portfolio will certainly convince your website visitors to
trust in your brand and convert them to buyers.

Display client logos

If you have
worked for any serious clients before, make sure to show off their logos on
your website. Potential customers would definitely be impressed to see you have
already contributed to the success of other brands. They would also want to use
your product or service expecting to achieve success as well.

Showcase testimonials

Providing
the words your past or existing clients have used to positively describe your
product or service can be one of the most powerful sources of trust for your brand.
Potential customers are more likely to trust such words as they will consider
them not biased unlike your own words.

Badges or stickers

If you
truly believe in the value that your brand represents and wouldn’t hesitate to
stand by it, then why not display any badges or stickers that will precisely
make that point? If you provide a money back guarantee, don’t just say it but show
it prominently using a sticker. Such a sticker should of course be displayed
next to the “buy now” button as it will likely boost your potential buyers’
confidence. Similarly, if your business is Better Business Bureau (BBB)
Accredited, showing that on your website will definitely increase the trust
potential customers are likely to have in your brand.

Build Social media pages

Potential
customers are likely to believe that your brand is big enough if it commands sizeable
social media following. A discerning customer does a thorough research and will
want to find out if you have social media pages and if so how many followers
you have there. Your business profiles on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are
particularly very important for branding and engagement with targeted audience.
Social media integration into your website also significantly improves audience
reach. People may trust the information shared by their friends, family members
or colleagues in their social networks. If that’s about your brand, eventually
it may translate into sales.

Provide trusted payment options

Payments are
perhaps the most sensitive areas of online transactions. Customers do not want
to be victims of online fraud and therefore want to use payment options they
can easily recognize. Display recognized images for each payment option allowed
on your website. That will make things far much easier for the customers. You
do not want a customer to leave when they have already added their chosen items
in the shopping cart. Adding every bit of payment convenience possible will go
a long way in optimizing your conversion rates.

Conclusion

Website
branding is not a one-time activity, but rather a continuous process that
begins from the time your business idea is conceived. It is about every aspect
that has to do with the look and feel of your brand. This has even become more
important for the online presence of businesses in order to stand out from the
competition. Winning the trust of your potential customers online demands a lot
of efforts, so the 9 proven techniques discussed here should only help you get
started.